West Ham United winger Michail Antonio has that it is "amazing" to write himself into the club's history books, by scoring the first league goal at the London Stadium, to give them a 1-0 win over AFC Bournemouth.
Making history
Anticipation was high as fans made their way to Stratford, as the Hammers looked to gain a positive result after the defeat to Chelsea, and the draw with Astra Giurgiu. Slaven Bilic's side produced few opportunities throughout the game, but a late goal from Antonio gave them the win against Eddie Howe's ten-man side, and he shared his delight at scoring the historic goal.
Antonio told whufc.com: "It feels amazing to be the first Premier League goalscorer at London Stadium and it’s one of those things I can always tell my kids,” and delightfully told the club's website “I had an interview last year and I was asked if I’d rather be the last goalscorer at the Boleyn Ground or the first goalscorer here – I said both, but this is a great feeling!."
The 26-year-old continued: “It’s always great to be in history and especially so as the goal won us the match," and when talking about the build-up, Antonio concluded “It was a nice bit of play, the ball held up nicely for Gokhan and it was one of those that I’m always going to be there [at the far post]."
Great to get out on the pitch
The match with the Cherries saw the home debuts for a number of their summer signings, in front of a home record crowd of 56,977, one of them was full-back Arthur Masuaku, who talked about his delight to play in the club's new stadium.
“It’s a beautiful stadium. I had seen it when I came to sign for the Club at the Juventus game." said Masuaku after the win over Bournemouth.
The full-back concluded: “It is a great stadium, the pitch, the atmosphere, it really is special and we are really excited to be playing in this stadium."
West Ham United will take on Astra Giurgiu in their Europa League play-off at the London Stadium on Thursday, August 25 with kick-off at 7:45pm BST.